By Suleman Din / The Canadian Press

A crew member reported a strange smell in the cabin of a Swissair plane 25 days before the aircraft crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, officials with the airline say.

Shortly after the plane took off from Zurich for Hong Kong on Aug. 10, 1998, a steward on the plane reported "a strange pungent odour that occurred in waves" in the area near the first-class galley, according to a report in Facts magazine to be published Thursday.

The smell became stronger during the flight, prompting the chief steward to file a report to the airline, the Zurich-based news magazine reports.

Last Sept. 2, the same plane took off from New York for Geneva. The pilots aboard mentioned a strange smell, then complained of dense smoke. Soon after, Flight 111 plunged into the Atlantic off the coast of Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.

After the crash, the crew's original report of the odour was passed on to Canadian investigators. Crew members from the previous Hong Kong flight were then flown to Halifax for questioning by the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, Swissair spokeswoman Beatrice Tschanz said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Zurich.

The crew were made to smell different odours, including those of burning wires but there was nothing conclusive and the report was shelved, she said.

Investigators have still not identified the cause of the fire that sent the smoke into the cockpit, although attention has focused on electrical wiring.

The odour report is one of millions of documents investigators and Swissair staff are analysing, the airline said.

Tschanz said she is angry at the Swiss magazine for "jumping" on that one report.

"This report was investigated, and it was proven that it had nothing to do with the cause of the crash," she said. "There are millions of things to look at here, not only technical things but also service problems.

"We have released this information because there are families who want to know why the crash happened, and we want to show just how seriously we are taking the investigation."